In the words of Alejandro Dumas, Granada is “more dazzling than the flower and more flavorful than the fruit it is named after, like a virgin lying in the sun.” From 
October 25th- 26th, ICS fall 2019 students had the pleasure of experiencing the beautiful Andalusian city for themselves through a field trip with the program chaperoned by Gina de los Santos and Vina Lanzona. The architecture, art, food, and landscape of Granada were astounding, and being in the company of friends made the experience all the more enjoyable.
October 25th consisted of a long travel day beginning at 7:45AM from the Porvenir neighborhood of Seville. After a nearly 3 hour long bus ride, we finally arrived at the Alhambra, one of Spain’s most highlighted tourist attractions that sees nearly 6,000 visitors daily. The Alhambra, which is often referred to as Granada’s “love letter to Moorish culture,” features a fortified palace complex consisting of the ruins of its original 13th-century citadel, the Palacio de Charles V, and the Palacios Nazaríes, all complete with a backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains that add exponentially to the breathtaking qualities of the historic site.
After our visit to the Alhambra, a few of my peers and I quickly settled into our hostel before joining our professor Vina Lanzona to visit the home of Federico Garcia Lorca, a prominent poet, playwright, and author who was executed by Francisco Franco’s Nationalist militia during the Spanish Civil War. At his home, we learned about Garcia Lorca’s family, personal life, and politics, all of which we have previously studied in our Spanish Literature and Cultural Memory class at ICS.
We ended our wonderful weekend in Granada the morning of October 26th with a visit to the Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Assumption of the Cartuja and the Royal Chapel of Granada, the resting place of the Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand. The richness of history and culture that my peers and I have had the opportunity to experience in Granada that weekend is something so awe-inspiring that I cannot fully express it in words. Granada is truly a gem of Andalusia that will definitely see me again in the future.
